On the fence...

Today was a lovely spring day.  At fifty seven degrees with full sun it was almost downright hot.  My neighbors probably think I'm a weirdo but at one point I was laying on the pavers just soaking up the sun heat...long sleeve shirt and pants of course but it got me excited for summer. Then I had to go in to make dinner.  But the kids were all outside and since our bug count right now is one (some freak early mosquito someone killed on the sink), I left the back door open.  I was chopping cooked chicken when I heard Cheetah  squealing, "doggie, doggie".  Marilyn the dog was barking a lot.  I decided to peak out the door to see what was causing the commotion.  At the top of the 3 1/2 foot chain link fence separating our houses I saw Cheetah getting ready to throw her leg over to climb down into Marilyn's yard and Marilyn jauntily barking to welcome her. "Cheetah, put that leg down and crawl back down into our yard THIS MINUTE!" I yelled from the porch.  "Ok momma," she sweetly replied as she quickly scaled back down.  Guess our fenced in back yard isn't quite the barrier I thought it was.

Cleaning The Church

 I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I seriously dislike cleaning the church.  It isn't the actually cleaning, I mean really when you spend your life picking up messes what is two extra hours a couple of times a year?  It isn't the idea of it.  I get it.  We have church buildings that we use and I can see how potentially cleaning them may give you a sense of ownership, something akin to the ownership people use to feel when they actually had to provide the labor, money, and materials to build their buildings as opposed to the sort of disconnect of just writing out your tithing checks and not really knowing specifically where the money is going.  I can see how having members clean leaves more money available for other things like proselyting and humanitarian efforts.  I get it.  That being said with a husband who works all the time I usually don't have the option of only having one of us go without the kids to get the job done or two of us for extra eyes and hands.  While theoretically the idea of bringing the kids to help them gain a sense of respect for the building sounds great, the practice of taking a 2,4, 7, and 9 year old to the church to help me clean,  keep them busy, out of trouble, and from making more messes is a lot more stress than I usually want to undertake.  The truth is even with our tight budget, I'd be totally willing to kick in an extra 10 or 20 dollars of tithing a month to help pay for a cleaning person just to avoid that stress.  But since that isn't an option I go and try and at least not be a hindrance to the other families also assigned to clean with us on our day.  This last month Dr. J was actually with us.  It cut my stress level significantly and while the kids did eventually bore and start to scatter, before that point our family got all the floors vacuumed and mopped and Cheetah took out most of the trash, a task that was ALMOST worth the stress level just to have the opportunity to watch.

Scary Shopping Trip

Yesterday we went to the mall.  I feel totally ready for Christmas, but Dr. J who was hasn't had any time to shop really wanted to go out.  One of our stops was the mall to get this years Christmas tree ornament.  We parked at Sears and were almost out of the store when an announcement came over the speakers saying that if you would just come to a table in the back you could get a free gift.  That was all Dr. J needed, he turned around and headed back into the store with Gigi, Captain E, and carrying Cheetah, but I was holding hands with Peach and she freaked out about turning around.  So I headed out into the mall to the ornament kiosk.  We looked at every ornament on the cart and still Dr. J was gone.  We sat down on some couches and Dr. J told me he was watching a slicer infomercial.  Next thing I know I see him at the front of the store, Cheetah on his shoulders, Captain E and Gigi and he's carrying a slicer in his hands headed for a cashier.  We sat a few minutes longer and then I see a man walking out of the store.  There are a couple of people kind of walking around him but I'm not entirely sure they are with him, in fact I sort of had the vibe they weren't.  He's carrying a little girl in his arms and her coat is the same color as Cheetah's, and as I watch him for a second longer I think, "Man that girl really looks like Cheetah," and then a second later I realize it is Cheetah.  I jump out of my seat and start running toward them.  "Cheetah," I yell out my hands reaching toward her.  A woman on the side of him says, "That women is her mother."  I grab her from his hands and he says to me, "She was walking around in the store by herself."  I murmur, "Thank you".  And then I turn toward Peach to make sure she is still sitting on the chair I just vacated.  I also reach for my phone to call Dr. J and as him if he realized Cheetah was missing, and in this moment the man is gone and the groups on either side of him are gone.  But as I'm talking to Dr. J my mind is whirling and my hands start to shake, because it hits me like a ton of bricks, why was he walking out of the store?  If you found a baby wandering around in a store, wouldn't you look for her parents in the store, take her to the cashier, look for a security guard in there?  Those would be the logical choices.  What you wouldn't do is walk out of that store?  Who would walk out of the store?  And then there is the fact that he just handed her off to me when I jumped up yelling her name.  There is no way that he could have known I was her mother.  I hadn't been in the store with them for over a half an hour.  He had no way of knowing who I was or that I was sitting right outside the door.  He just knew that I'd called a name out and grabbed her from his hands and he disappeared.  It was crazy and it freaked me out, I mean really freaked me out.  When Dr. J and I talked about it later he freaked out.  He told me he had just put her down for a second so that he can purchase the slicer and when he looked back down she was gone. I really feel like if I hadn't seen her being carried out of the store she may have been gone forever.  I don't have any proof of this but it just seems so off to me.  I'm so grateful I found her.  Many prayers of thanks to heavenly father for that one.  Can we all agree I really need to buy that monkey leash!

Sink Bath

So this happened today.  We were all sitting downstairs reading and Cheetah was sitting at the table eating some crackers.  At least we thought she was sitting at the table, but she was so quiet I started to get a little nervous.  I stood up and walked into the dinning room.  She was missing.  "Has anyone seen Cheetah?"  I got a resounding, "NOPE!"  My stomach started to knot up as I went looking.  As I cleared the top step I heard the gentle rush of running water.  I ran as I pushed into my bathroom and this is what I saw.  My daughter had climbed up into the sink and turned the water on.  This was not new, but this time she had pushed the plug in and because my sink is a single piece with no extra drain hole she was bathing in water and it was spilling all over the counter, onto the floor, and actually into the drawers and cabinets.  I quickly turned the water off and threw towels on the floor but then called Dr. J upstairs to snap this picture.  Oh man then I had to get to wiping up the water which considering the mess the counter was at that moment was not an easy task.  Please don't ask me how things get so cluttered...they just do.  Hey Stayfree I hope you enjoy this commercial!  You too Clorax, enjoy!  This girl was of course ecstatic and for one more time in my life I was grateful we had turned our heat down on our water heater.  Sometimes it is annoying to be stuck with luke warm water but on days like this I am so thankful we are!  I'm living with a tornado, one three previous children did not prepare me for.  She is so hyper aware of EVERYTHING!  She looks at things and thinks, how do I get up there, how did I get in there, how do I pull that down, get it out, eat it, break it, movie it.  When she was born they told us that 1 out of 2 preemies end up having ADHD.  Sometimes Dr. J and I just look at each other and give a little wink.  Whatever her future holds she definitely has a lot of energy and she sees adventure and trouble places no one else in this house ever has before.

Cheetah Files - Preemie Life 22 Months

 I wish I could bottle Cheetah up and take a little sip of her everyday.  She is the Energizer Bunny on Methamphetamine.  Remember people I have four children so this is not my first time at the rodeo but man this girl has kick.  Trouble at her birth just a preview for her future.

She loves this window seat!  I mean just absolutely loves it.  She will climb up there and yell at her dad, the garbage truck, her siblings, the bus.  She knows words for pretty much everything and loves labeling things at the top of her lungs!

 Peach and Cheetah spend many hours together.  One of their favorite things to do is read and they especially love this popping book my mom found at Costco.  Pretty much you just keep pushing these pieces of plastic back and forth and they make a pop sound, like a never ending piece of bubble wrap.  They love it!

Cheetah also loves to raid shoes from mom and dad's closet.  This activity drives daddy bonkers because said shoes disappear and he'll be looking all over the house for his "other brown shoe!"

She climbs into the sinks all the time.  Sometimes she'll get all the way in and turn on the hot water.  It drives me bonkers, but her newest feat is even more spectacular, she'll just hang on the edge of the sink like this, turn on the cold water and get a drink.  Who the heck does this?  I mean seriously, what 22 month old climbs the sink to get drinks?  This child is a weird one :)

More recent months have also found her exploring the world as a nudist.  The likes to help get herself dressed has morphed into the can take all her clothes off and be out of her diaper in ten seconds or less.  Seriously such a pain!  Especially since this girl has since this discovery gotten poop all over my floor no less than three times.  So we've started a onsie always rule and she now sleeps always in footy pajamas.  One can only clean so much poop off the floor before one goes crazy :-/

Also we've found a new love in life...this girl LOVES ELMO!  I mean just really LOVES HIM!  The first thing she'll ask for most mornings is him, the last thing she ask for, if she sees a phone, or ipad, or tv, she always says ELMO, ELMO, ELMO!  I found this Elmo stuffed animal that has been kicking around our house for years and she is just over the moon about it.

This girl loves her veggies, takes after her sister Gigi she does.  If I leave the fridge open for a sec, I will often find her looking for delicious bits.  She cracks me up!

This year with her two older siblings in full time school, and Peach in preschool and a much desired play date, Cheetah's gotten a little more time with mom to herself .  She's enjoying it by running errands, reading books, and playing dance parties.

This girl is still a bit of a destructomatic.  I took her to this bookstore and within a second she had a whole row of books down.  This is of course while her sister was calmly looking for a My Secret Unicorn book.  Oh well.  I guess that is the difference 2 years makes :)

This girl is still such a dare devil.  This playground is for the big kids but she is all over it.  Recently she was yelling at me from the platform where the monkey bars are, they are still about three feet to high for her to reach, "Up mama, UP!"  Yeah kid, sure I'll do that and then I'll get ready to drive you to the emergency room to have your arm set.

Oh yeah, look here I am a nude again.  Good grief.  This was the same day she escaped out of the side gate and the neighbor found her roaming in the culdesac.  I hadn't even realized she was gone, I was too busy trying to help Captain E with his homework and had thought she'd gone in the house with Dr. J.  He thought she was in the back with me.  It wasn't until I heard her screaming out front that I was hit with the panic.  Worst feeling ever realizing your kid might be gone!  I was so relieved my neighbor had grabbed her and brought her back!

This girl loves her mama.  There was a couple of days after I got back from my sisters wedding when she was really angry at me and she just didn't want to be by me but a week after I got home we were best buddies again.  She loves to give hugs and kisses, high fives, and fist bumps!

And this is why you have to have eyes on this girl all the time.  22 months and going strong!  We love our little Cheetah!

Preemie Life 18 months - 15 1/2 months adjusted

My little Cheetah is 18 months today.  How did this happen?  Why can't I just freeze time for a second.  She is growing like a weed, literally.  At her appointment she measured 31 1/4 inches which for her adjusted age puts her in the 65% for height.  This is nuts to me.  She still seems so short, but apparently she isn't as short as I thought she was.  She has definitely made strides in her height.  Her weight on the other hand...not so great.  She is 19 lbs, 9 ounces which puts her in the 8th percentile for her weight.  She is dropping off her growth curve.  This isn't my first time at this rodeo.  Gigi was off her growth curve and then at four she jumped up in height again.  Captain E was a huge baby but then as he got older while he stayed on the taller side he continued to get thinner and thinner.  Such is life.  Cheetah loves to eat.  She loves apples, bananas, strawberries, cheese, chicken, noodles, chocolate chip cookies, lettuce, potatoes, popcorn, rice, oatmeal, cereal, and her absolute favorite is lasagna, or "basagna" as Peach likes to call it.  She also loves popsicles and you will often find her running around the backyard half-eaten popsicles in hand.  She loves being outside.  Thank goodness we got a fenced in yard because she loves to be in it.  Her favorite hangouts are the sand box, digging and getting dirty make her happy, swinging on the swing, and the top of the play house.  This girl is a climber.  You often find her on top of tables, dressers, sofas, and ladders that are available.  It shouldn't surprise anyone that her favorite word is "UP".  "UP," she yells, "UP, UP!"  At fifteen months I was worried because she was hardly speaking at all but recently her language has started to blossom.  She calls knows my name, her dads, Captain E's, and her sisters.  She can tells us to pick her up.  She ask for food and drink.  When you give her something she will tell you "Thank you."  When she hands you something she will say, "Here you go."  Cheetah loves to read and will bring a book to me and say, "Mom read."  She loves the dog next door which is crazy because that dog is not so nice.  I keep telling Dr J I'm worried the dog is going to bite her, and really do we need to do another emergency room visit this year?  Really.  She is a good girl.  A joy to be around.  She has a great laugh and gives great cuddles.  Her siblings and parents adore her, although captain E will often tell me, "This little girl is trouble."  And he is right.  But she is also a delight.  Cheetah we love you so much.  It is fun to watch you as you grow and gain skills each day.  You really are a great kid!

Natural Born Tapper

This year we put Peach in dance.  It is Saturday and because Dr. J is always working I have to take all four kids with me.  Gigi and Captain E spend their time running around with other kids, watching the big ballerinas through the window, commenting on when Peach isn't behaving, and squabbling.  Tiny T is not surprisingly much more of a handful.  Recently I've just come to sitting in the hall with her and watching her walk back and forth.  Today while Peach was in ballet through a series of head shakes, pointing, and grunts Tiny T asked me to put Peach's tap shoes on her, and then she was off.  She headed right over to the hard surface floor and started stomping.  What do you think, do I have a natural born tapper or what?

Bunk Bed Ladder

This weekend Dr. J and I put the girls bed up into the bunk.  They've been begging us to do it ever since they  saw their cousins bed was in a bunk and I figured it would be good prep for the step of moving Miss Cheetah out of our room and into theirs.  I knew the ladder was going to be a problem eventually but I didn't realize it would be a problem immediately.  Then I came into the room and found all three girls on the top bunk.  "How did SHE get up here?" I asked the two oldest.  "She climbed," they told me.  But I was a bit skeptical.  So I decided to film it.  Turns out she did climb.  Silly little baby.  15 months old and she is such a tiny tornado (12 months if you still are using her adjusted age :( )

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15 Months, Tiny Tornado is in the House

 My baby is a nutter!  I mean she just is.  She climbs.  She hits.  She yells.  She runs circles in my house.  She screams for fun.  She pulls everything off of shelves.  She runs to the fridge when it is open and starts pulling food from the shelves.  We have to keep all the bathroom doors closed because she plays in the toilet.  She'll pull all the paper off the rolls.  She pulls my pots and pans out daily, my popcorn maker.  She unloads the dishwasher.  She pulls garbage out of the bins.  She won't leave hair things in.  She hurls herself into the tub.  She spits milk out from her sippy.  She hangs on the handle of the oven trying to get it to open.  She is my fourth child and there is not a mellow one in the bunch but I think it is quite possible this one might take the cake.  She has an impish look and the personality to match.  If I had to do it again I'd name her Faye because she is a little Fairy, but like her Irish ancestors of old would tell you, a fairy from the old country, one that was full of mischief rather than one you'd see in a Barbie Dream Special.

She is so proud of herself for learning how to sit on chairs, especially since her legs are so small she has to climb.  Unfortunately she doesn't just sit but then climbs up on the chair and then up on the table.  

 She has to catch that one little mid afternoon snooze so she'll have the energy to scratch and kick me at three in the morning.  The child is a beast in the night when she doesn't get what she wants.

A Mother's Intuition

Three days ago the girls started running a fever. It was low grade, just over 101.  We choose not to do anything about it except keep them home, keep them hydrated, and keep them comfortable while we waited for it to run it course.  Early this morning though Petite Sweetie woke up in a horrible mood.  She was screaming.  She refused to nurse, which for her is a big deal, major comfort nursers here.  She kept banging her head on me or rubbing it on the sheets.  Later when we got up and I put her down on the ground I noticed that her balance was especially bad.  She would stand but then stumble a few steps.  It made me wonder if she had an ear infection.  We have an Otoscope but of course it was not currently charged, and the doctor in the house was on his way out the door.  So like every other person on the planet I had to wait until 8:30 office hours to call the pediatrician.  At 10:30 we were there.  I told the nurse what was going on and she said, "Hmm, sounds like she's having night terrors."  Alright nurse, thanks for you opinion.  The doctor came in, took one look, sure enough it is an ear infection.  Poor baby girl!  This is only the second my kids have ever had.  The last one happened about three years ago to Gigi.  We didn't even realize she was sick until her ear drum burst.  Way to go parents!  It makes sense now why Rosie has been so hard to comfort.  I had an ear infection once when I was flying home from college.  It hurt so bad on the plane I was crying.  I couldn't for the life of me figure out why no one else had tears in their eyes.  Go figure.  Anyway crossing our fingers this clears up soon.  I don't know what I'm going to do if I have to go through another night of baby slamming her head into my face.  Poor baby, but poor mommy as well.  In her happier moments today I caught this little video.  She loves the dishwasher.  She is also a climber.  Definitely is her father's daughter when it comes to temperament.  If you look real close you can see her shake her head no at me.  She does that all the time when she doesn't like what I'm saying :)

Preemie Life - Cheetah Turned 1 - 9 1/2 months Adjusted

So once again we have reached the month of November, the month of NaBloPoMo, or blog everyday in November.  This will probably be the fifth year I've followed Bridget off this ridiculous cliff.  Considering I'm now only averaging about four post a month I predict I'll only make it the first week but here goes nothing.  Darn you Bridget, why do you have to be so cool!  DARN YOU!!!!

Anyway this is a good opportunity to get caught up on a few family post.  Three days ago we celebrated the birth of my third daughter, Cheetah, aka, Sweetie Petite, Sweet Pea, Rose, Rosie, Tiny Tornado, or TT for short.  Last year her birth 2 1/2 months early spiraled me into the worst year of my life.  It started when my water broke at 27 weeks on my birthday when I was home alone with three kids and couldn't remember the last time I felt her move.  I ended up on mandatory hospital bed rest praying my body would hold out 7 weeks so she could be born at 34 weeks, but being told I had only a 20% chance of not having her within two weeks.  Dr. J couldn't take any time off unless he took family leave which would put his residency back two months and would have resulted in two months of no pay.  Luckily my mother-in-law flew in to save the day.  She was amazing and the only thing keeping my life from becoming a complete disaster.  I sat in my bed for two weeks feeling like a ticking time bomb.  Finally something happened, only it wasn't what I'd mentally prepared for.  After a day of a terrible back ache (hello I always have back labor, why didn't I realize what was happening), my body went into labor and my sweet baby girl entered the world only three quarters cooked.  She was three pounds and rushed almost immediately to the NICU.  We didn't get to hold her until day three.  It would be months before she could come home.  It would take another six weeks after that before I could finally nurse her and wean her off the NG tube.  She scarred my heart with her separation, with her Bradys and Apnea, and her aspirations while eating.  I put more miles on my car then I ever had before.  I was more sleep deprived and in the end I yelled at doctors, something that for months I'd been able to avoid.  Since then she has grown and hit every mile stone necessary.  At her nine month appointment (61/2 month adjusted) the developmental pediatrician said she didn't have to see her anymore because she was amazing.  She is AMAZING!  We love this little baby so much.  She is our little miracle!  We are so thankful for all the blessings we saw with her birth and all the people that made it possible for us to take care of her.  Happy birthday Cheetah!  You are our heart!

(Prepare now mentally for picture overload.  I cut about half of these out but the kids are so cute I had to include so many!)

They Just Keep Growing

The kids just keep growing.  I mean seriously why won't they stop!  Captain E is eight now.  It's great to be eight.  Kid cracks me up.  As soon as he knows you are taking a picture those eyes snap shut.  It is almost impossible to get a picture of this kid when he knows you are trying.  Easter, mother's day, back to school pics.  These are so hard.  Kid kills me.  I tried growling and bribing.  No joy.  Instead enjoy this silly look with the eyes closed.  Look at those skinny long legs and arms.  This kid cracks me up.

Then we've got Gigi.  Finally five an moving on to school.  She loves the bus.  She loves the social aspects of school, having a whole new group of friends.  She loves snacks, reading, the library, art, and PE.  There is one thing she hates about Kindergarten, nap time!  Everyday she comes home and tells me they had to have rest time again.  "I haven't taken a nap in years mom," she tells me.  Yes I know sweetie, yes I know.

Little miss peach.  Oh boy.  Three has always been the hardest age for me.  The kids go from being these cute little mama loving babies to being these independent, opinionated little people.  Every day becomes an exercise in hostage negotiation.  Peach has been no exception but she also is adorable.  This particular day she wore her pajama top all day under her backwards shirt.  That's just how we roll her.  She also recently got this little pixie cut.  In general I'm anti bangs on my babies because as the hair thickens up they just keep getting thicker but Peaches hair is so thin and crazy :)  She loves it!

Then we have little miss cheetah who I have renamed Petitie Sweetie, aka sweet pea.  She is adorable and pretty much the most trouble I've ever seen in such a small package!  In three days she will be ten months old....or 71/2 months adjusted.  She is just a tiny little thing, 16lbs but she rules the roost in this house.  Smart little whip of a girl.  She can get the lids off markers.  I often find her crawling around chewing on the tabs of the door stops.  She will unplug my phone and suck on the chord.  Ok maybe she just has an oral fixation.  She is one of the happiest little people I've ever seen.  We adore her.

Delicious

Why yes that is my daughter with the rosebud mouth and the cream skin.  Feel free to covet what beautiful babies I make :)

Preemie Life - Eight Months Old, Almost 6 Months Adjusted

The first year of life, wow it just flies.  Ok those first two months while she was in the hospital, not so much, but every second since has just gone by double time.  I got this little crib for her last month.  Is it weird that with four kids in my house this is the first time we've ever bought a crib?  The other three had to sleep in this tiny crib (like the size of a pack n play) that friends of ours gave us eight years ago when we first had Captain E.  The thing wasn't pretty, it wasn't big, and the mattress was just this thin thing of foam that was falling apart.  It did not adjust.  It did not become a toddler bed.  The one thing it was though, was free, and when you are poor grad students with kids, free is good.  So that bed held our three other children, when they weren't sleeping with us, and from there we transitioned them into full sized twin beds.  We moved that bed through 4 moves.  The wheels broke and we just popped them off and kept using the crib.  This last move we looked at the mattress and thought, that's it, this thing is done.  I looked into getting a new mattress for it, but the thing would cost $40-$70.  Yuck.  It was then I decided I just wanted a new crib.  So I found this one online at walmart.  I used credit card reward points to buy gift cards and when it was all said and done spent only $30 out of pocket.  It is cute.  It matches the furniture in the girls room.  It will fit the adorable bedding I bought at Target two years ago for $12 (75% clearenced off).  It will adjust to a toddler bed.  Then  day bed.  She will sleep in this bed until we move three years from now :)  I might want slightly nicer things but it isn't easy to shake the cheap bug, and truly who wants to.  The crib has already had to have some adjustment.  The day after I took this picture we had to put the mattress to the lowest setting.  She is a standing queen.  She gets up on everything.  We were worried she'd fall out of the crib.

Her eyes still haven't settled.  I think they'll end up being brown but right now they are hazel, a brown/green mix.  

She is a much loved addition to the family.  Of course much loved doesn't necessarily mean safe.  G bear and Captain E will often fight over who gets to hold her, while they are holding her!  Peach likes to lay on her or try to drag her around the house.  How do 4th children survive?  All three for her siblings love to feed her.  She likes oatmeal, rice cereal, carrots, applesauce, and sweet potatoes.  One day when I needed to cook and the girls were driving me crazy, Cheetah because she was hungry and GG and Peach because they are buggy I set them to work in a feeding team.  I put Cheetah on the floor in her bumbo right behind me and then gave the girls the cereal to feed her.  They did a great job.  Dinner got done and the bumbo chair was the only spot worse for wear.

Cheetah is a beautiful little girl.  When she first came home her skin was so rough and she seemed so fragile, I don't know if it was the steroids she was given, the caffeine, if it had something to do with being born early or what but she was missing that softness of a newborn.  Now her skin is like silky cream.  She has a beautiful little tan complements of her love of swimming to go along with her dark hair and lashes, and delicious rolls to make up for her skinny legs at birth.  She also enjoys taking showers and often when I take my morning shower I'll put her in the tub with me where she play with a bowl while I shave.  She doesn't seem to mind the water coming over her face and has a good time splashing.  


She has a very serious look to her, almost as if she's checking you out, trying to decide if you are worthy.  Then like a ray of sunshine through the canopy of the the forest burst out with these big smiles.  She doesn't mind being held by strangers and will crawl up to any adult.  She tolerates being manhandle  by many different children.  My friend in town has a daughter just a few months older who is about the same size.  They will often sit on a blanket rolling around on each other and slapping each other faces.  I guess when you are just a few months old, scratching each others faces is how you play together :)

Her crawling and standing up at objects or crawling onto objects had made her very accident prone.  She's gone off the bed three times already this week.  Of course each time we were sitting right there.  I've decided from now on she is a" on the floor only while awake unless she's actually being held in your arms" kid.  So now when I'm working on the blog or watching So You Think You Can Dance or maybe doing both of those things I have to do them on the floor so she'll be safe.  She crawls around me, picking up toys, handing them to me, chewing on my toys, climbing on my lap, having a good old time.  She'll then come over and start slapping on the laptop.  She loves the laptop.  It is her favorite "toy."  She chews on the side and the chord.  She pushes buttons.  She actually looks at the screen to see if her button pushing has any reaction.  I plan to have her start doing the blogging in a few months :)

This is Cheetahs laugh.  It is a seriously the weirdest baby laugh ever. 

Here is how she likes to wake up daddy in the morning.  She has super scratchy nails so it is really not fun!  Don't you love the wife who video tapes your pain rather then save you from it?  Yup I'm definitely a gem!

Finally here is Cheetah and some of her skills.  She rolls, sits, crawls, and stands up at objects. She can actually pull herself up at things although for the video I just put her up.  She eats baby food.  She sleeps through the night.  She rolls front to back, back to front.  She explores everything she can get her hands on.  First she looks at it.  Then she shakes it.  Then she puts it in her mouth.  She can pick up a puff off the floor in her thumb and finger and then get it into her mouth.  She still has no teeth, but considering she's one of my kid, that really isn't a huge surprise.

You Remember When I Mention Cheetah Getting Into Everything...

Well it gets worse.  Is there a higher infant mortality rate for fourth children to first children?  I'm serious. This kid gets hauled around way more by unsteady hands, is exposed to more on the floor, and gets a lot more unsupervised time.  My least favorite thing that the kids do, pick her up and then start fighting over her while she is in their arms.  Yes she has gotten hurt in these scuffles.  Yes they have been forbidden to hold her for entire days because I'm so ticked off about it.  I understand she is their favorite toy, but for crying out loud, I'd like her to make it to adulthood without too many ER visits.

Speaking of which I almost took her yesterday.  I got home from running errands at noon.  Cheetah was asleep in her car seat so I started to unload the groceries.  All the sudden I heard her screaming.  I got her out and then went next door to talk to my neighbor.  I figured she'd calm down as soon as she realized she was being held.  She didn't.  I tried to nurse her, figuring she was hungry.  She was irate.  I bounced her, rocked her, talked sweetly in her ear.  Nothing helped.  I finally brought her back home where the madness continued.  There was one position she'd let me hold her in, facing me, my arm across her back.  If I moved her at all, jostled her going up the stairs, tried to turn her, tried to lay her down she would scream.  I had to do everything one handed.  I was worried so I called Dr. J.  "Something is wrong with Cheetah," I told him.  He gave me a list.  Does she have a fever, is she eating, is her stomach rigid, is her fontanel bulging, are her lips bluish, is she gassy, can she move her legs, will she let you move her legs."  "No, no, no, yes, yes, yes."  The questions and my responses gave us no answer.  He told me he'd check her out when he got home, then went off to work with patients.

An hour later things had not resolved. I was seriously worried.  I texted him again and he told me to call the pediatrician if I thought it couldn't wait.  I did and they had me leave a message on the nurse help line.  Two hours later they still hadn't responded and I was texting friends asking if they could watch the other kids while I took her to urgent care.  Finally the nurse called back.  They asked the same question Dr. J had asked.  Got the same answers.  "Well," the nurse said, "Sounds like something is wrong.  Bring her in tomorrow if she is still acting like this.  Take her to the emergency room if you can't wait until tomorrow."  Um, ok, thanks I guess.  At this point she'd been in pain all afternoon and I'd had enough.  I called Dr. J to tell him I was taking her in.  "Ok," he told me, "I'm on my way out the door and I'll watch the kids when you go."  At this point she screamed and did a giant poop  I took her upstairs to change her diaper.  I wasn't looking forward to it because a diaper change earlier had led to a screaming fit.   This change was met with the same.  As I went to put diaper cream on her, my finger brushed up against a hard edge at her anus.  What the heck, I wondered.  Then  Dr. J walked in.  I told him what I had felt.  He gave her a cursory exam and then opened her diaper.  "There is something definitely coming out," he said.  He gave it a couple little tugs while I stood around cringing and was rewarded with a plastic sticker star.  Instantly we had a happy baby daughter.  She started rolling around and trying to crawl on everything.  She was tear and pain free.  "Well I think we found the problem," Dr. J announced.  No kidding Sherlock :)

We talked to the kids about how we need to keep the floors cleaner.  I'm sure it will last a day.  Definitely not looking forward to what she chooses to eat next.

You Know Those People Who Lose Their Children....

Well we are them, but that comes later.  We have never taken our family on a vacation that didn't involve going to Utah to see family.  There was never the time or the money to do anything besides our yearly pilgrimage to Utah.  I didn't feel bad about it but this year when Dr. J got three weeks of vacation time, I was anxious to use one on a family vacation.  The first week, we originally saved to use on Cheetahs birth.  Of course she surprised us and came 11 weeks early.  Instead that week was used for Dr. J's kidney stone surgery.  The second week was a trip to, you guessed it, Utah.  The finally week we planned to drive down to North Carolina.  Then reality hit us.  We'd spent most of our savings on medical expenses and our house this year, we were broke, and we weren't really feeling the long drive.  That's when I remembered some friends mentioning they'd done some camping on the great lakes.  And I remembered a Parenting article that mentioned Indian Beech as one of the top 10 family beaches.  With less then half a day drive, the option to camp, and no worry of sharks it was easy to decide this trip was the one for us.

Location, Location
-When doing anything with children location is key.  Originally Dr. J wasn't to queen on the fact that our campground had showers and running water bathrooms.  Turns out with four kids they were a necessity.  Especially the night that Peach crawled into Dr. J's sleeping bag and peed all over him!  Boy was he grateful for the washing facilities then.  We were also close to a playground, the perfect place to send our high energy brood during set up and pack up.  Our site was on the back end of the dune and we were surrounded by sand.  While it wasn't the most pleasant to clean out of the tent on our pack up day, it kept the kids entertained for many hours!

I bought this tent for Dr. J Christmas two years ago.  This was our first time using it!  Hurrah for the eight man tent.  Turns out families of six with tons of child hud need the extra space :)

We also were super close to the nature center, a small museum about the dunes, the animals there, and the history.  It was a fun place to visit, a great place to watch birds, and these crazy squirrels, and later when we lost our kids a place to run for help.